


669

by Relvetica



Series: An Old Handful of Small Xenosaga Fics I am Rescuing from LJ [2]
Category: Xenosaga
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 08:51:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3685974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Relvetica/pseuds/Relvetica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They'd only been awake for a week, and Rubedo was already a known trouble-maker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	669

None of the technicians had said as much, but Rubedo -- URTV Unit Number 666 -- assumed he was the last in the series. Well, him and Albedo together. It kind of made sense that they'd leave the weird one for last. But while he was dressing after the completion of his physical and mental scoring -- sufficient, he would not require adjustments, whatever that meant -- he overheard a tech mention to another that a crucible decantation process was being prepared for the next morning. He paused, trying to hear more, but the two had already left the room.

Crucible decantation? Were more units being prepared, or were they talking about something else? He hadn't achieved full consciousness until four hours after being removed from whatever artificial womb he'd been laid in, so he wasn't sure about that bit of terminology. Well, there was only one way to find out.

Albedo was still undergoing his own tests. They were taking a lot longer with him for some reason, which was worrying, but Albedo was under sedation so Rubedo couldn't ask him what was going on. He touched his mind and felt only a warm buzz. Well, he was probably fine, and he wouldn't want to go sneaking through forbidden parts of the facility anyway.

They'd only been awake for a week, and Rubedo was already a known trouble-maker.

He waited for the slight confusion surrounding the change in shifts at lunchtime and slipped through a door that was marked as AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY but wasn't locked, and he wandered the maze of hallways that held the sealed beds the units had occupied before they'd been awoken. There were ten beds to each room, and they were all empty and abandoned. Most of the equipment wasn't even powered. In fact, the only reason he found what he was looking for was because there was one door at the end of one hallway was left open with the light on.

He waited long enough to make sure no one was going to come out of there and catch him, and then he crept into the room and closed the door behind him. Ten more beds, nine left open and empty. The last one was closed, and its life-monitoring equipment was still running. Just one. Rubedo went up to it and peered through the glass. It was hard to make out with the florescent lighting reflecting off of it, but there was his own face, eyes closed in the sleep that proceeded sleep, framed with black hair. Another variant.

He poked the panel for a display of his chart. URTV Unit Number 669. ...wait, 669? He looked at the next bed over, but it was definitely empty. This one must be a replacement for one that had died. That would explain the delay. A lot of them hadn't survived the suscitation process, but the regular units didn't require replacement as such. Why was this one important?

Rubedo looked down at 669 and was suddenly aware of how empty this place was, how alone this child waiting to be born was. They had no mothers to surround them and comfort them. Was he afraid? Was he sad? Did he feel anything, sealed as he was? Rubedo himself couldn't remember what it had been like, though it had hardly been more than days since he'd been in the same state. He wasn't entirely sure if it was safe to do so, but he couldn't resist his own curiosity; he reached out as he had with Albedo and delicately touched the edge of 669's mind.

He was asleep, but his sleep differed from Albedo's. It was dark and soothingly cool with no horizons to look for. This was the extent of a world. Nothing. A peaceful nothing. No knowledge of himself or anything outside of himself. Rubedo bit his lip.

([don't wake up] hello)

A faint stir, like the water that moved under the surface of the fitness pool. Not awareness, but a sort of reflex. Like turning when you hear a sound behind you.

([don't wake up][you're not ready to wake up] there's more than this)(you'll see soon)(when you're ready [not yet][soon] I'll show you)

He could feel the shift then. It was something subtle but profound: in an existence that knew nothing of existing, a quiet dawning awareness of other. What answered him was faint and unthinking.

( ? )

Rubedo smiled and laid his hand on the glass. It was blood-warm.

(I'm your brother)


End file.
